Not just OS X

Interesting tactic

It this another ruse by Dell? Sell an over-priced and under-spec'd machine to then claim "Oh look Linux is shit. It didn't sell). And I'll believe it is available in the UK when I see it. Probably for £1,500 too, given Dell's pricing structure.

Re: Register badge == wastes time at work

Ah yes, that's because my CV says "Mr. BigYin" on it. Plus I list the handles I use on the sites because I am just that freakin' awesome!

Actually I don't think I want to work for someone who doesn't understand that when you are bashing your forehead off the desk, it can sometimes be helpful to think about something else for 5 mins. And if I did work for something like that, they'd get 9-5, work-to-rule and the current overtime I do for free would be time-and-half, double on weekend and holidays.

Re: If this is true...

By "yank ourselves out of this mess" I don't mean "waste billions on useless wind tech" that our government seems to think is the answer, or "scrap all nuclear, claim to the green and import dirty power from Eastern Europe" like the Germans. I mean, actually yank ourselves out of this mess.

We can't go on over fishing, slashing and burning etc. Even if it isn't causing GW, there is a hard-limit because there simply isn't any more "stuff". Pumping toxins into rivers can't continue for the same reason.

I'm not a raging greenie in a hemp shirt, but I don't shit where I sleep either.

And, of course, that's if this is true and if it means AGW isn't as bad as thought. Big ifs.

Full disclosure

And this is why you need it. Even if all the code and workings are shown and explained, if the lock is any good it will hold once it is engaged. SSH (to pick one) is full disclosure. It's also absolute nails once it is set-up (correctly) and engaged.

Re: You have the right to remain guilty...

Adverse inferences may be drawn in certain circumstances where before or on being charged, the accused:

o fails to mention any fact which he later relies upon and which in the circumstances at the time the accused could reasonably be expected to mention;

o fails to give evidence at trial or answer any question;

o fails to account on arrest for objects, substances or marks on his person, clothing or footwear, in his possession, or in the place where he is arrested; or

o fails to account on arrest for his presence at a place.

That's not much of a right to silence is it? It's a bit like saying "You have the right to hold your breath indefinitely". You do have such a right, but you're going to be rather screwed if you exercise it.

Sauce for the goose

MPs can ask companies to stop their tax dodg...efficiencies as soon as the MPs themselves stop engaging in such shenanigans. Perhaps the MPs should look at re-hiring all the HMRC inspectors they allowed to be sacked and updating a few laws?

All this is just grand-standing for a bit of good PR - it amounts to nothing.

Re: It's not the coding or even the RasPi

"Secondly, the "£25" computer is a myth. You have to buy cases, SD cards, highly-regulated power supplies, plus something for it to plug into (like a monitor for a start). PER DEVICE."

Wrong. Bar the SD card it's no "per device", it's per seat. The keyboard, monitor etc all probably exist right now and are ready to use. Heck, the RasPi can be per seat too, just have the kids carry their own SD card (may not make sense in all cases though).

The RasPi is far from perfect, but the idea is sound and it is better that spunking £500+ on locked-down shite that just spits out brainless button-pushers.

"you need to have the training and the support infrastructure there to handle things."

That exists. They're called "Computer Science Teachers". And then I remember that in England one is not required to have a degree in the subject one teaches.

It's not the coding or even the RasPi

It's the everything. It's removing the fear of tinerking, investigating and trying new things. It's encouraging thought, analysis, design, and engineering. This used to be the province of Meccano, Lego etc (both now dumbed down to hell).

To do this you don't actually need a RasPi, but you need something free, open and cheap enough that if you do happen to break it; it's not the end of the world. You simply cannot do that on a desktop PC with restricted boot and a restricted operating system.

All that does is produce push-button clones who thing "Google" is the Internet and that Excel is a good database.

There's the odd thing about H-D. They're actually quite innovation and (now) have reasonable quality (dreadful in the past). But despite their engineers tinkering around with cool new ideas, their designers seem stuck in some 50s James Dean time warp. And that's not an H-D issue, Victory et al are just the same. Big thumping V-twin and always a big-thumping V-twin in a cruiser-style layout with soggy suspension.

Might work in the USA with long straight roads, but I can imagine it being hell over here with the bends and the rain.

Eric Buell tried to show them and...failed.

Of course the European/Japanese bikes have problems in other directions. With all the engines being race derived, they are high revvers and very thirsty. Shame really. A decent, low MPG bike would be excellent.

Re: convicted monopolist"

"If you use something other than IE and it never touches the 'net, why the hell do you make such a big deal about uninstalling it? Are those 3MB so crucial to you?"

Well, for starters baking it deeply into the OS in such a manner that it can't be removed was deemed to be abuse of a monopoly position which led to MS becoming a convicted monopolist.

Secondly, despite not ever wanting to use IE it keeps popping up. Want to open an XML file? Oh look, there's fucking IE. One used to be able to deal with that relatively quickly by altering the file associations, which is a bloody PITA on Windows 7.

And thirdly, it is much bigger than 3mb. So why should I keep code for an application I don't want hanging around as a security risk? Oh, I have to because some wing-nut decided to integrate said security risk deeply into the OS.

"You're a linux evangelist anyway so you couldn't use IE if you tried, you hypocrite."

I don't think you understand you meaning of the word "hypocrite", so I'll help you with some basic comprehension again. hypocrite, adjective: Person portraying false virtue; or Person who acts in contradiction to their own statements. So I'd only really be a hypocrite if I said "Don't use IE" whilst in fact using it. So I can't be a hypocrite on my GNU/Linux systems as they don't run IE (IE6 could be run in WINE I guess). I could be a hypocrite on my Windows system, but I've gone to great pains to avoid IE altogether because is it so bloody god-awful.

As for being a "linux evangelist" (which would be quite a compliment if it came from someone with any clue as to what they were talking about), if attempting in some small way to defend freedom and foster competition is offensive to you, then I strongly advise to reassess your values; defending oppression does seem like a nice lifestyle. Or maybe you have Stockholm Syndrome, there are people who can help with that.

Re: convicted monopolist"

"There is nothing illegal about a monopoly or about trying to get one."

There is about abusing it. Here, let me help you with some basic comprehension:

Were (are) MS a monopoly? Yes.

Were they convicted for abuse? Yes.

Ergo "convicted monopolist".

"These days, anyone who cares can use the browser ballot to install whatever they like."

Where's the "Uninstall IE option"? Ah yes, you can never remove it. How cute. And of course MS is now blocking the install of alternative OSs on to most OEM hardware (and yes, I know about MS's terms surrounding SecureBoot and whilst they are not blocking as stated fact but the effect is to block any alternative. I for one hope to see the regulators move on that - certainly given MS's ineptitude with the Linux Foundation boot-shim and the requirement to use an MS OS to proceed with the key-signing).

"Do you think browsers would be free if not for MS?"

Yes. Just like operating systems can be free (in terms of beer and speech), and office applications, and drawing programs, and CAD applications and...

Re: A *BIG* difference

Why should MS be allowed to dictate to me what I can do with my own property?

Would you be happy with Ford telling you which company's fuel you can use? Or what clothes you have to wear when driving?

It's the principle. My device, my choice. And yes, before you start, Apple are equally guilty (but they're not a convicted monopolist yet and are not restricting choice on other company's products like MS are).

Re: A *BIG* difference

To add to Richard's excellent response, there is the PengPod and the Vivaldi Tablet, plus any number of "odd ball" things coming out of China. Oh and the WebOS unit that HP dropped during it's most recent schizophrenic fit. Need I go on?

If you hate Linux, good luck in using your fridge, PVR, eReader, car and router; all of which are probably running a Linux in one form or another.

A *BIG* difference

The Kinect is open enough to allow people to connect it to what they want, hack away at it and do cool new things that MS never thought of. All this brings press coverage for the Kinect and is, in effect, free PR. (I'm ignoring the legal threats MS issued to the first hackers.)

Win8, on the other hand, is locked down tight and so is the hardware. No hacking, no cool new ideas, nothing. So all MS get is the bad press about how shit Win8 is (and it is shit).

The poor quality of the Surface.

Oh, and the bad press about blocking the Linux Foundation's attempts to get their own bootloader signed.

And the other bad press about dodgy firmware that only accepts the MS boot label.

Wait...

Mixed feelings

"The hack, the gaming equivalent of jail-breaking, allows home-made games"

Awesome. I am all for this.

"pirate copies of titles"

Not so much this.

"other unauthorised software to run on the Wii U"

Awesome. I am all for this.

One of the best techy things I ever did was jailbreak (softmod) my old xBox. Became a pretty nifty media front-end. Why companies just don't embrace hackability with the caveat "You break it, we ain't mending it!"

Re: "public Wi-Fi network providers"

AC...probably just a brainless troll...but I'll bite because it's fun.

"Piracy as a "right" is never going to get much sympathy when it hinges on someone losing out."

I'm not advocating for piracy. I'm not into rape and murder. I'm also not advocating for copyright infringement. I'm simply advocating for not having a presumption of guilt and for the protection of our social culture. You trying to tell me that 70 years is a reasonable time period? Pfft. And the recent 20 year extension was gained by artists from beyond the grave? No. Pure profiteering, nothing more and our cultural heritage is held to ransom that little bit longer. Kids can't have their own designs printed on to cake because that's an attempt to overthrow multi-national corporations?

Tell me...ever heard of Shakespeare? Did all his stuff being out of copyright ruin theatrical production? Oh wait, Beethoven's sheets killed live orchestra. Or not.

Nice link. So MTV doesn't play music videos because there are other channels (e.g. YouTube) and other ways for artists to reach fans (e.g. Twitter). Strange, doesn't seem to stop the likes of "Kerrang!" (on in my household quite a lot). And I don't need to see speedboats jump through balls of fire (that's what movies are for). Also, I could never stand MTV. "Celebrity Deathmatch" was about the only thing worth watching.

I will say one thing, the situation with regards access is is better than is has been, but the content providers are still wedded to old ideas like "regions" and all that does is drive people batshit. I can't watch "Hulu" for example. Why? I might even pay for "Hulu" if it was an option (thus doing away with my current cable deal). But no, not an option. I want to buy that DVD, but I can't play it because it's region 1. I want to give you my money but you won't let me*. Idiots.

* In reality can play it of course, but only because I have gone all illegal and (shock, horror) by-passed the region lock. Wow! Look at me! I am a l33t criminal who can now given money to the people/companies they like! Arrest me! I am supporting free trade!

"The direct hit on my wallet that paying for a license fee costs vs this ethereal cost factor"

There's nothing ethereal about it. A business cost is always passed on to the consumer. And whether your wallet is skewered through the heart or bled to death by a thousand cuts, doesn't change the fact it gets drained.

"Please tell me how to calculate this cost factor."

Basic arithmetic. [cost of adverts] / [units manufactured] = [cost per unit]. If you want specifics, go look up a few numbers. Will the cost per unit be high? No. Fractions of pennies. But multiply that by the number of various units you buy every day, week, month, year. The point isn't that this cost if large or small, but that commercial stations are not free. There is a cost and it is borne by us whether we want to admit it or not.

"Secondly, you are assuming I spend the adverts time staring at the screen....Another phantasm cost you conjured into existence."

Which is why I stated you could avoid it. If you can't be bothered to read nor to comprehend what is writ; there's not much hope for you I'm afraid.

Nope. They cost you, those adverts are not free; so you pay for those with increased product prices. Also, if you watch them, you pay an opportunity cost. Let's say you watch 2 hours of 2 a day. That's about 6-7 advert breaks. We'll say 6. Average time, 3 mins so that's 18 mins of adverts a day; or jut over two hours a week. How much do you value your free time? £10/hour? So you pay £20 per week to watch Channel 4 and ITV and you pay higher product prices. Nice. You can avoid the former but not the latter; and the situation is even worse with the likes of Sky as you pay again to get the adverts!

Not finished the article yet...

"For those of you who don’t know, timesharing, whose heyday was in the late 1970s, allowed companies to use large mainframe-based systems without themselves having to purchase these huge computers and hire an army of support staff."